Disclaimer: It’s long, if you just want the stats, scroll to
the end.
Last weekend was my first triathlon of the season: The Rookie
Triathlon; the name could not be more suiting. After taking a break for almost
a year I’m back, and to say that I’m out of shape would be a huge
understatement. There were dual categories for Rookies and Veterans, and, since
I’ve done about a dozen triathlons now, I signed up as a Veteran, but I sure
felt like a Rookie the whole weekend. I usually don’t care too much for sprints
or super sprints, and if I had to pay for it, I probably wouldn’t have
registered for the race. But, last year I won entry to all the events of this
year’s Texas Tri Series, so I figured, why not?
Friday, I went down to Jack and Adam’s to pick up my packet.
I though that by going early I would avoid the line… wrong! The line was so
long that for a moment I thought all of Central Texas
was doing the race. Maybe it was all of those rookies –I thought –, they’re
probably secretly afraid the organizers are going to run out to packets to hand
out, or something, I know that’s why I
go there early; I fear that if I don’t get there within the hour of packet pick
up opening, I’ll be handed a men’s XL shirt. Hey, it has happened to me before.
It took about thirty minutes under the hot Texas sun to finally get my packet. I
remember thinking, oh boy, it’s only the first week of May, and already it’s
going to be a hot, hot race.
On Saturday I took some time to get my transition bag ready.
Most of my gear was in it’s rightful place in the garage, but I still had to go
on a scavenger’s hunt through the house in order to find a few missing pieces…
open water goggles, race belt, road ID. I had to go through the list a few times,
to make sure I wasn’t forgetting anything, but I got it done.
As usual, Miguel went through his pre-race interrogation:
“Do you feel ready?” “What are your goals for the race?” “Are you going to beat
your time?” The answer to all of those was: I don’t know. To be honest, the
Rookie pretty much sneaked up on me. I registered a long time ago and, although
I’m training, I wasn’t specifically training for this. It was in my calendar
–that handy-dandy google doc spreadsheet that I carefully create at the beginning
of every season, and then never look at it again, that is, until the next
season –but I didn’t realize the race was upon me until last week when I
received the pre-event email. So, I told Miguel I just wanted to finish and
have fun; not a good enough goal in his book, but a perfectly acceptable goal
in mine.
At night Miguel and I went to a friend’s house to watch the
boxing match, Mayweather vs. Cotto. A voice in the back of my head tried to
remind me it was not the best idea to be hanging out late the night before
a race. I proceeded to ignore the voice and go hang out anyway. The fight ended
almost at midnight and I had to be up by five, so shortly after it finished we
said our goodbyes and drove home. We barely made it home and to our bedroom
before the thunderstorm started. WTF? Rain, really? I could only hope that the
streets would be dry by the morning and that the trail wouldn’t be a muddy
mess. I looked at the weather app, it still said there was a 10% chance that we
would get any rain, so maybe this was one of those flash storms. Oh, well, nothing
I can do about it, so I went to sleep. When the alarm went on at five there was
still plenty of rain, and plenty of thunder. Really, what is wrong with you,
weather channel? Out goes my wish for dry roads and not-too-muddy trail, but at
least it’s not going to be a hot race. Still, nothing I can do about it, so I
went on with the morning routine.
When we got to Decker Lake it was still raining a bit, but, I
figured I was going to get wet at some point anyway, so I wasn’t too upset. I
made it to body marking and was glad to see a few familiar faces volunteering.
Once marked, I went in to transition. I had a really hard time finding my rack;
there were men racks all over the place, a lot of women 30-34, a lot of Rookie
racks, but I just couldn’t find mine. After circling around a few minutes I
finally found my spot. I looked around and the rack was packed, and I mean
really packed, which is what you get when you don’t get to transition really
early. I also remember thinking there was an unusual amount of mountain bikes
racked, but I didn’t give it too much thought. I will admit that I am pretty
rusty when it comes to setting up transition. I kept forgetting things or
couldn’t remember what I had done in the past with my gear, plus, it was still
raining, which made the whole process more complicated that usual. Well, well,
well, it took me forever, but I got it done, and then, after everything was
exactly the way I wanted, I realized I had racked in the wrong place (Rookies W
25-29, instead of Veterans). Did I mention that was rusty? So I had to wonder
around for a few more minutes to finally find my rack, for real this time. I
was able to set up faster the second time around, but not by much.
A few minutes before the scheduled start, the organizers announced
the race would be delayed because there was still some lightning that had not
cleared off. Around 8:30 I started walking towards the lake. When all the male
veterans had started it was time for the blue caps of female veterans 29 and
under. It was the smallest wave start I’ve ever had; we couldn’t have been more
than 20. We all looked around wondering if that was really all the people in
the race and then we realized we were about 20 and the wave spanned three age
groups, so, oh yeah!, were all going to be in the top 10 of our age group, even
if we finished dead last, and that included me. Sweet! With this new found
knowledge I knew it was going to be a great race. Soon enough, they
counted us down and off we were with the swim. Since there were so few of us, there
was not much contact at the beginning and the whole thing was actually
pleasant. Two good things about the swim: 1) I didn’t finish last in the wave
and 2) I wasn’t passed by anyone in the next wave.
I went through T1 slowly, but without troubles, and very
soon I was out riding. I really like the Decker loop, even with the wet road.
Since I was sure this was not going to be a PR race, I decided to have fun. Unlike
my usual self, who is too concentrated in not falling from the bike, this new, fun me was having a blast! I was giving out “good job”s as I passed people
(not too many of those) or as I get passed, thanking every volunteer, I had fun
going up and down the hill, taking it easy on the corners. On the last big hill
Red overtook me, crap! that would mean that Coach Jen is coming. No worries,
just having fun, right? I almost thought I could get away with it, but less
than half a mile from the dismount line it happened, Jen flew right by me.
Back in transition, I switched to my running shoes, which
were damp from all the rain, and went out for the run. It was a short one –which
is one of the reasons I don’t like sprints too much –it was also, surprisingly,
not muddy. I kept waiting for the hill that never came, and then, before I knew
it I was crossing the finish line and I was a rookie no more.
Once I got my massage I went to see my results: 1:11:12
total, and good for 5th in the age group (of 8, but that’s not
important). The 300m swim was 7:22, the 11.2 mile ride 41:45, and the 2 mile
run was 17:35, whit 3:06 and 1:22 in transition.
No comments:
Post a Comment